In many of today's communications networks, a subscriber terminal may communicate over a channel with a switch or other such entity and the switch may then set up and route communication traffic between the subscriber terminal and a communications network. The communications network may be circuit-switched (e.g., the legacy public switched telephone network (PSTN)) or packet-switched (such as the Internet or a corporate intranet, for instance) or a combination thereof. Further, the interface between the subscriber and the switch may take various forms, including but not limited to a wireless air interface (e.g., cellular radio-frequency, satellite, microwave, or the like) or a landline interface (e.g., twisted-pair copper wire, cable, etc.)
A subscriber terminal may be portable or fixed. A portable subscriber terminal (or “mobile station”) may be used at various locations and might be arranged to be coupled with various interfaces or communication networks (e.g., via a network plug, docking station, or wireless interface). Common examples of a portable subscriber terminals include cellular handsets (e.g., cellular telephones), personal digital assistants (PDA), and notebook computers. A fixed subscriber terminal is usually fixed in one location, typically coupled with a specific network. Examples of fixed subscriber terminals include traditional landline telephones and desktop computers.
Some subscriber terminals are capable of communicating voice traffic, while others are capable of communicating data traffic, and still others are capable of communicating both voice and data traffic. By way of example, a traditional landline telephone will likely communicate voice traffic (e.g., the telephone can send speech signals into the PSTN), while a wireless PDA or notebook computer would likely carry data traffic (e.g., the PDA or notebook may provide a user interface for web-browsing on the Internet), and a cellular telephone might communicate both voice and data traffic (e.g., the cellular telephone may facilitate both voice-band telephone communications and web-browsing). These examples may vary, and other examples are possible as well or will be developed in the future.
Due in part to the historical development of communications networks, at least two separate architectures have arisen to handle the communication of voice and data traffic. Traffic that is characterized as voice has been handled in one way, while traffic that is characterized as data has been handled in another way. Voice traffic, for instance, is typically routed through a switch (such as a “service switching point” (SSP) or a “mobile switching center” (MSC) for instance) into the PSTN, for routing in turn to a remote switch and then to a recipient terminal. On the other hand, data traffic is typically routed to a data gateway such as a “packet data serving node” (PDSN) or network access server (NAS) for routing in turn over a packet-switched network or other data-centric network to a remote node.
In a typical arrangement, a switch that routes voice traffic may query a service control point (SCP) or subscriber home location register (e.g., HLR) to for guidance in routing a voice call. The SCP or HLR (as examples) may then refer to a subscriber profile and apply a set of enhanced service logic so as to determine how to handle the call, and may then instruct the switch accordingly. In contrast, a switch or gateway that routes data traffic may query a different control point—such as an authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) server—to find out basic service level criteria, such as the bandwidth at which the data can be transmitted for instance.
Of course, the applicable architecture depends largely on how the communications are characterized, such as whether a given communication is characterized as voice or data. For instance, communications originating from traditional customer premises equipment in the plain old telephone system (POTS) may be characterized as voice. Notwithstanding this characterization, however, such communications may in fact represent data, such as when a computer modem communicates a modulated bit stream over a voice-band channel with a local telephone company switch. (Such communications may ultimately be connected through the PSTN with another modem, for handling in turn.)
As another example, communications originating from a computer coupled via a broadband cable modem or DSL connection with the Internet may be characterized as data. Notwithstanding this characterization, however, such communications may in fact represent voice (as in voice over IP (VoIP) or other packet-telephony systems). (Such communications may ultimately be connected through a gateway with a voice-band channel to an analog subscriber station for instance.)
The present inventors have recognized that the separate treatment of voice and data communications (or circuit-switched and packet-switched communications, for instance) can unfortunately lead to a partially redundant and often inefficient arrangement for imposition of services in communications networks. By way of example, it is often possible that a given user may own and/or operate both a data communications terminal and a voice communications terminal (which may be separate terminals or may be one in the same). To facilitate both voice and data service, the user may need to subscribe to functionally and architecturally separate systems. Therefore, there may be little if any interaction between the services provided in the respective system
Further, the inventors have realized that, due to the historical separation between voice and data communications, some services that have traditionally been available for application to voice traffic are not available for data traffic. For example, while basic services such as call waiting, caller ID, call forwarding, voice mail and the like are now commonplace for voice calls, data sessions are being provided without the benefit of even those basic services. Further, data sessions are being provided without the benefit of more enhanced services such as pre-paid calling, and advanced call routing (e.g., 800-like call forwarding) for instance.
A need therefore exists for an improved arrangement for providing services to data sessions and for providing services integrally across assorted types of traffic such as voice and data.